Introduction
We went to San Sebastian in the summer of 2018. We landed on a Friday night and left Tuesday morning, thus we had 3 FULL DAYS, which was 2 TOO MANY! You’ll see why later.
Where to stay
The only American chain hotel is the SPG Luxury Collection Maria Cristina (review coming.) Either do that or Airbnb or Hotels.com gift cards. I’d recommend staying near the Old Town.
Getting around
The city is small enough that you can walk most of it in a day. You can ride the bus if you need to; there is no Uber or subway.
Day 1
I won’t count the Friday night that we got in around 10PM and walked to the Old Town to eat at night. The next full day, we had lunch reservations at Akelarre at 1PM, so we ate breakfast, worked out and then took the bus to the restaurant. Review coming. After that, we went back to the hotel to take a nap. That night, we went to the Old Town to eat.
Day 2
We walked around the loop for some light sightseeing. Then went to the bigger beach, which was MASSIVE. We didn’t even go down there just because it was so crowded. We had drinks at a restaurant overlooking the beach. Then walked back to the hotel, took a nap, and then prepared for dinner.
Day 3
Woke up late. Ate breakfast. Walked to the “surfer’s beach,” which was less busy, so if you pick a beach, I suggest this one. Then we walked to the shopping district. Had lunch. Went back to hotel. Napped. Then woke up for dinner. We decided not to do the aquarium, museums, or any churches just because I didn’t think they’d be any good.
Where to Eat
The Maria Cristina will give you a booklet of the best pinxtos to get in the Old Town. That was very helpful. We ate in the Old Town for almost every meal. We really liked Atari if you can squeeze in there. Our first meal was at Ubarretxena and we got the tapas tasting menu there (pretty good.) You really can’t go wrong with the ones in the booklet. We did pick one for lunch that wasn’t in the booklet and it sucked, so definitely take the hotel’s advice.
If you want to go high end, Arzark was very hard to get reservations (they book a year out, so try for that.) I think Akelarre is a bit cheaper than Martin Berasategui, so that’s why we picked it.
Conclusion
As you can see, we were pretty bored with San Sebastian. If you’re a beach person, then it may work for you. Even as foodies, do you really want to go back to back Michelin restaurants? I think 1.5 days is good enough for this city. I wish we had taken a train to Pamplona to run with the bulls on one of the days. Oh well.